my six cents:

.02- I like the way the new RX8 looks.. i saw a couple of them in person on my roadtrip and they're pretty stylish.. some ferrari cues, some blatent mazda cues.. pretty good looking cars

.02- the engine is pretty cool. it's a great step for the rotary in terms of efficienty and power. plus it revs to 9500 however 167 ft/lbs of torque is just weak as hell.. i hope to god they slap a big ol' turbo on the 2005 RX8

.02- it's my understanding that an automatic transmission will sap quite a bit of power from an engine to the wheels, but AWD will also take quite a bit. ~150hp at the wheels for an elderly SVX sounds about right to me. well, it's not RIGHT, but it's ok I hear that the new STi dynos somewhere around 250hp at the wheels.. manufacturers need to start advertising their cars with whp instead of bhp....

-adam